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A recently discovered letter, of unknown age and origin:

To Adam Silver and the basketball powers-that-be: Why so quiet?

From your mighty cloud on high, you struck Utah and Indiana for their heresy and crimes against the sanctity of the game. You sent doctors and insisted on micromanaging every personnel decision of these pitiful teams, lest your followers dwindle into disbelief through the mighty vice of tanking’s temptation. The underlings have paid the price, and your word was made law.

You did not hesitate to pass righteous judgment against the wicked in the past. Yet now, as Utah dives to the bottom of the pile, the gods have fallen silent?

Clear and obvious tanking measures continue to spread like a plague across the dregs of professional basketball, and the protectors are nowhere to be seen. Their influence is muted. Their hand is invisible. My faith has reached a point of crisis — a hinge point from which I feel destined to fall. I feel on the verge of collapse, as Sacramento, Washington, Brooklyn, Dallas, and yes, even my home of Utah, laugh in the face of judgment, smile in the crosshairs of your vengeance, and mock your authority with every subsequent contest.

Are you there? Can you hear my plea? All I can ask is for justice to be handed to the deserving. Were you simply hoping to make an example of the unpopular? Do you fear those beneath you so deeply?

NBA Olympus has fallen, and Silver is tarnished.

(Author Unknown)

Previous volumes of The Great Tank Race: I | II | III

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1- (+3) Indiana Pacers (15-54)

Like waves upon a stormy sea, the Pacers rise and fall in the order of the tank race. Just a month ago, they had dropped all the way to fourth place.

But then they lost 14 straight and lurched right to the bottom again. Congratulations are in order because that is their second streak of 13+ losses this season, and they are just two away from tying Sacramento’s record of 16. The lords of the tank shook off the chains of mediocrity and have embraced bloated, unapologetic self-sabotage. I have never seen something quite so beautiful in my entire life. Indy has not won a basketball game since the last edition of this saga and has brought meaning to meaningless basketball.

The possibility of adding one of this year’s top prospects should have the Pacers’ front office in a frenzy, because I can imagine any of Dybantsa, Peterson, Boozer, or Wilson pairing effortlessly with Tyrese Haliburton. When all seemed lost, they reclaimed their throne and kingdom.

I bend the knee to you, O rightful King of the Great Tank race.

2- (+0) Washington Wizards (16-52) 1.5 GB

Yes, Trae Young is finally wearing basketball shorts again, but Washington is in no rush to push him into heavy minutes at this point in the season. Gradually bringing their injured stars along on minutes restrictions cost Utah $500,000. That service is free in the nation’s capital.

If you thought that Indiana’s 14-game losing streak is impressive, the Wiz are not far behind — currently shuffling through a 13-game slumber of their own. Two titans of the tank are doing battle at the top, and there’s very little the higher-ups of the league can do to stand in their way.

3- (+2) Brooklyn Nets (17-51) 2.5 GB

Yes, one-man shooting gallery Egor Demin is out for the year with plantar fasciitis, and yes, the Nets have done very well to position themselves in the bottom three (equal odds for the number one pick), but there’s trouble over the horizon. When it comes to strength of schedule, the Brooklyn Nets have 14 games and the fifth-easiest remaining slate of any team in the NBA — easier than any of their tank race adversaries.

Considering their paper-thin curtain of just a half-game separating Brooklyn from Sacramento, the comfort of the top-3 and an equal share of number-one pick odds exchange hands of the Tank Race contenders on nearly a game-by-game basis.

Brooklyn, a team that quintuple-dipped in the first round of last year’s draft, is hungry for more. They’ll have plenty of chances to claim losses at the expense of their tank race foes down the home stretch. Lose those games, however, and the crowded mass at the bottom of the standings could spit you out far from the top pick.

4- (-3) Sacramento Kings (18-51) 3.0 GB

Kings.

You guys can’t even tank right.

5- (+1) Utah Jazz (20-48) 5.5 GB

With the hope that Keyonte George receives a full recovery from his hamstring tear suffered against New York, Keyonte’s availability was only going to hurt his team’s chances in the Tank Race. Utah has become one of basketball’s most exciting teams, promising a starting lineup of George (who is playing at an All-Star level this season, and I will personally fight anyone who disagrees), Markkanen, JJJ, Kessler, and Ace Bailey/whoever Utah snags with their first-round pick. Heck, Cody Williams just had a 34-point, 7-assist, 7-rebound game against Portland. The atmosphere is crackling in the Salt Lake Valley.

Any of Dybantsa, Boozer, Peterson, or even Darius Acuff would be incredible additions to a Jazz squad that feels they are just one foundational player away from competing in the Western Conference — and they’re tanking like their lives depend on it.

Losers in 2 of their last 10, Utah is climbing the ladder — or sliding down the fireman’s pole, depending on which way you prefer to orient your standings page — and gaining ground on a Kings team that is 5-5 in their last 10, and actively competing on a nightly basis against the customs of the Tankers’ Guild.

You tell me which is detrimental to the integrity of the game.

t6- (+1) Dallas Mavericks (23-46) 8.0 GB

Cooper Flagg is Cooper Flagg-ing once again, and the Mavericks are winning basketball games. This is tremendous news for Utah, whose shirt collar has become damp with condensation after these months of the Mavericks breathing down their necks in the standings.

The Mavs lucked into the number one pick last season after one of the most sanity-defying trades in recent memory, and have only made the Luka exchange worse by turning around to sell low on an aging, and (surprise, surprise) injured Anthony Davis. Yes, Nico Harrison is no longer with the team, and the whole “win-now” motivation behind dealing Doncic was his idea, but Dallas is years removed from competitive basketball, even if Kyrie Irving decides to return from his cryogenic chamber to play NBA basketball again.

If Dallas gets the number-one pick, we revolt.

t6- (-3) New Orleans Pelicans (23-46) 8.0 GB

Bad news, Atlanta. The Pelicans learned how to win.

New Orleans’ first-round pick is owned by the Hawks, all because the Pelicans needed Derik Queen. Queen is excellent for a late-lottery pick, don’t get me wrong, but New Orleans has sabotaged their own future during a present that promised, well, many more lottery picks before they can set their gaze upon trophies.

The Hawks — as hawks often do — swooped at the opportunity to claim an easy kill. The Pelicans are no longer a bottom-three team, no, but this is a bleak organization, and has been for an agonizingly long time.

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Calvin Barrett is a writer, editor, and prolific Mario Kart racer located in Tokyo, Japan. He has covered the NBA and College Sports since 2024.

NOME, Alaska (AP) — Former reality TV star Jessie Holmes cruised to a repeat victory in the Iditarod, the roughly 1,000-mile (1,609-kilometer) sled dog race in Alaska.

Holmes guided his dog team across the finish line Tuesday night in the old Gold Rush town of Nome, a Bering Sea coastal community. He pumped both fists in the air as the crowd cheered for him and his team of 12 dogs.

After finishing, the dogs got steaks and Holmes answered some questions accompanied by his lead dogs, Polar and Zeus.

“Zeus led every single run except one. I just wanted to let someone else have some fun. And Polar deserves it more than anybody,” he said. “He leads by example.”

The race started March 8 in Willow, a day after the ceremonial start was held in Anchorage. The course took dog teams and their mushers over two mountain ranges, along the frozen Yukon River and across the unpredictable Bering Sea ice.

Holmes, a former cast member on the National Geographic reality show “Life Below Zero,” is the third competitor in the 54-year history of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race to repeat the year after winning for the first time. The others were Susan Butcher in 1986-1987 and Lance Mackey in 2007-2008. Both went on to win four titles.

Holmes told The Associated Press before the Iditarod that this year’s race was the most important of his career. “That’s hard to put that on yourself because you got to live with that pressure every day,” Holmes said. “And if I do not make it, it is going to absolutely crush me.”

He will pocket about $80,000 for this year’s win, up from the $57,000-plus he took home last year. This year's purse was boosted by financial support from Norwegian billionaire Kjell Rokke, who participated in a newly created, noncompetitive amateur category. Rokke reached Nome on Monday, under rules that allowed him to have outside support from a former Iditarod champ, flexible rest periods and to swap out dogs.

Holmes' first Iditarod was in 2018. His seventh place finish earned him rookie of the year honors. He has now raced in the Iditarod nine times, earning seven top 10 finishes. He’s been in the top five the last five races.

He appeared for eight years on “Life Below Zero,” which chronicled the hardships of people living in rural Alaska.

Holmes used the money he earned from the show to buy better dogs and equipment, and also was able to purchase raw land near Denali National Park and Preserve. A carpenter by trade, he’s carved his homestead in the wilderness, where his closest neighbor is about 30 miles (48 kilometers) away.

Rokke, who now lives in Switzerland, provided $100,000 in additional prize money and $170,000 to Alaska Native villages that serve as checkpoints. Another musher in the noncompetitive “expedition” class, Canadian entrepreneur Steve Curtis, pledged $50,000 to help youth sports programs in the villages. Curtis did not finish the race.

The race’s biggest critic, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, has claimed that more than 150 dogs have died in the history of the Iditarod. It urged Rokke to spend his money to help dogs rather than put them through “hazards and misery.”

The Iditarod has never provided its count of dogs who have died on the race.

One dog has died in this year's race, a 4-year-old female named Charly on musher Mille Porsild's team, the Iditarod said in a statement Tuesday. A necropsy will be conducted.

Thirty-four competitive mushers started, matching the inaugural 1973 race for the second fewest in race history. The retirements of many longtime mushers and the high cost of supplies, such as dog food, have kept the fields small this decade.

Since March Madness became part of the sports vernacular, the NCAA Tournament bracket pool has become a familiar exercise. Broadly speaking, participants come from two main categories. There are the more casual fans who only pay attention to men’s college hoops around tourney time. They’ll do a modicum of research but will for the most part rely on name recognition and seeding to fill out their brackets.

Then there are the diehards, those who follow the sport from November onward in hopes of accumulating more knowledge for when the bracket is finally unveiled.

March Madness bold predictions: Best upset picks, Final Four sleeper

This is for the latter group, the ones who have been watching certain teams all season and are all too aware just how wildly unpredictable they can be. These are the teams that will cause self-described bracket experts the most angst as they consider their picks. They’re the teams that have the talent necessary for a deep run, even perhaps capable of sending a No. 1 packing. But they are also inconsistent enough that they’re just as likely to flame out in the first weekend. As you consider what to do with these eight teams, all we can say is, good luck.

Kansas

The Jayhawks’ history with Bill Self at the helm suggests their Final Four potential shouldn’t be dismissed. Their Big 12 results this season were a mixed bag, however, with impressive wins against Arizona and Iowa State mingled with ugly losses to bottom-tier finishers West Virginia and Arizona State. KU’s inconsistency isn’t entirely attributable to Darryn Peterson’s inconsistent health status, though that is certainly part of the story. Flory Bidunga can be dominant at times and invisible at others, and Melvin Council Jr. can be sizzling hot or ice cold.

Purdue

The Boilermakers were voted No. 1 in the preseason poll. At the start of the campaign and again at the end they looked the part. In between, however, they presented as a middle-of-the-pack Big Ten squad, a curious situation for a team with several multi-year starters. When Purdue struggled, there were issues at both ends of the floor, at times disinterested on defense and making bad decisions with the ball. Did the Boilermakers figure things out at the Big Ten tournament, or will there be a relapse at an inopportune time?

REGION BREAKDOWNS, PREDICTIONS: East | South | Midwest | West

PRINTABLE BRACKET: Fill out your picks for NCAA Tournament pools

Arkansas

There are many reasons to back the Razorbacks in their region. Their SEC tournament title would seem to indicate they’re heating up at the right time, and coach John Calipari has taken his share of teams to the final weekend. But their path to the SEC championship was cleared for them a bit as they didn’t have to face Florida or Alabama, and as good as Darius Acuff Jr. has been over the last few weeks, only a few teams have gone the distance with a talented freshman lead guard.

Gonzaga

Putting the Bulldogs in your Sweet 16 is usually a safe choice, but how far to take this group beyond that is tough to predict, especially since they’ll be matched up with equally volatile Purdue if the seeds hold. Gonzaga always plays a challenging non-conference schedule by necessity, and the results this season were mixed. The team defense is usually sound, but the Zags might not have enough perimeter scoring options to compensate when Graham Ike inevitably has to contend with bigger post players.

Connecticut

A few weeks ago, a complete domination of St. John’s had the Huskies on course for a top seed and well positioned for a shot at a third national title in four years. Since then, there was a loss to Marquette and a payback defeat to the Red Storm in the Big East final, not to mention numerous other uneven outings and more Danny Hurley meltdowns. It’s quite the conundrum when contemplating just how far to trust the Huskies in their extremely loaded regional. When Solo Ball is on UConn can beat anyone, but when he isn’t the rest of his game suffers.

Alabama

The Crimson Tide were going to be on this wildcard list even before the news of Aden Holloway’s legal troubles came out. Regardless, Alabama’s feast-or-famine approach at the 3-point arc can lead all the way to the Final Four as it did a couple years ago. This year’s version lacks rim protection, so the team has to rely on ball pressure to generate takeaways, a high-energy approach that might not be sustainable in the quick turnaround setting of the tournament. And missing one of their best players on the eve of the event may be too tough to manage.

Illinois

At the start of February, the Fighting Illini were riding a 12-game winning streak with a path to a No. 1 seed in sight with veteran guard Kylan Boswell returning from injury. But then Illinois went 4-5 down the stretch, with four of the five losses coming in overtime. All the defeats were against other tournament teams, but their troubling inability to make winning plays in close games has to be on everyone’s mind as the Big Dance tips off.

Virginia

While seeing the Cavaliers on the bracket is not new, this year’s version is constructed quite differently than the Tony Bennett teams of recent vintage. First and foremost, fans will see the team play at a much faster tempo under first-year coach Ryan Odom. But the real mystery with UVa is just how they’ll stack up against teams from other power leagues. The Cavs handled most of their competition in the watered-down ACC, but aside from a win against Texas there wasn’t much of note on their non-conference resume entering the postseason.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: March Madness bracket busters: Eight top seeds to avoid picking

The Big Ten is one of the two wealthiest and most powerful entities in college sports, an 18-school, coast-to-coast colossus that features many of the biggest universities and most recognizable brands in American higher education.

For all its money and influence, though, there’s something quite notable that the conference is missing: a men’s college basketball national championship in the past 25 years.

As the 2026 NCAA Tournament begins this week, the Big Ten will look to rectify a lingering and unsavory bit of history by having one of its teams cut down the nets in Indianapolis on April 6 after the national title game, something that hasn’t happened since Michigan State did it all the way back in 2000.

REGION BREAKDOWNS, PREDICTIONS: East | South | Midwest | West

PRINTABLE BRACKET: Fill out your picks for NCAA Tournament pools

Just how long has this drought been?

When the Spartans enjoyed their one shining moment, Bill Clinton was still the U.S. president. Later that April, the rock band Metallica sued digital file sharing application Napster. Jason Richardson, a freshman guard on that Michigan State team, now has a son who’s in his rookie season in the NBA. Richardson’s fellow freshman that season, Mat Ishbia, now has a net worth of $8.5 billion and owns the NBA’s Phoenix Suns. Tom Izzo, who now looks like this, looked like this.

To quote a popular song from around the time of the Spartans’ triumph, it’s been a while.

What’s made the drought so confounding is Big Ten teams haven gotten close to winning a championship. It’s not as if this is the Patriot League or the WAC, where it has a single representative in the tournament that’s fortunate to win a game. Big Ten teams regularly reach the biggest and brightest stages in college basketball; they just haven’t been able to close the deal.

Since Michigan State’s title in 2000, 15 teams from the conference have made it to the Final Four. Eight of those squads advanced to the national championship game, but in each instance, they lost. A couple of them came agonizingly close, with Illinois losing to North Carolina, 75-70, in 2005 and Wisconsin coming up short against Duke, 68-63, in 2015.

It’s not like its teams haven’t been in advantageous spots entering the tournament in recent years, either. Since the NCAA Tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985, 35 of the 40 national champions (87.5%) have been a No. 1, No. 2 or No. 3 seed. Since 2018, Big Ten teams have accounted for 17 of those 84 spots on the bracket (20.2%).

TITLE DROUGHT: Big Ten poised for another year of March Madness sadness

Even if current Big Ten compatriot Maryland, which won the national championship in 2002 while a member of the ACC, was included as one of the Big Ten’s championships, the conference has still gone nearly a quarter-century without a title.

During that same stretch, other power conferences have repeatedly had its teams hoist a trophy at the end of the Final Four.

Since 2000, the Big East and ACC have each had eight teams win championships. During that same stretch, the SEC has had four champions and the Big 12 three. Even the American, which has disintegrated in recent years into a one- or two-bid league, had a title-winner on its resume, thanks to UConn in 2014.

Why has the Big Ten gone so long without winning March Madness?

There are a number of factors that have contributed to the Big Ten’s tournament woes.

For one, it’s a single-elimination format that can create some extreme variance and unexpected results. Without absolving some of its missteps, it’s quite possible the Big Ten’s just had some rotten luck.

Beyond that, many of the Big Ten teams that made and ultimately lost the national championship game had the misfortune of running up against some of the best teams in modern college basketball history. The North Carolina team Illinois lost to in 2005 was 33-4 and had four of the top 14 picks in that year’s NBA draft. Two years later, a Greg Oden and Mike Conley-led Ohio State team lost to a Florida team that brought back the entire starting five from its national championship team the year before. In 2009, Michigan State was blown out by a North Carolina team that was 34-4. Wisconsin came up short against a 2015 Duke team that won 35 games and had two top-10 NBA draft picks. Michigan was handled by a 2018 Villanova squad that won 36 games and had Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges and Donte DiVincenzo on its roster. Two years ago, Zach Edey and Purdue weren’t able to hang with a buzzsaw of a UConn team that had won 27 of its previous 28 games, including five NCAA Tournament games that were decided by an average of 25 points.

The wait for a champion has been even longer on the women’s side, where Purdue in 1999 is the league’s last national title winner. At least some of that can be explained away by a small handful of teams that own a disproportionate number of championships during that drought – namely UConn, with its 11 titles since 2000.

Can the Big Ten win a national championship this year?

The Big Ten enters the 2026 NCAA Tournament about as well-positioned as any conference in men’s college basketball to take home the sport’s ultimate prize.

Four of the top 10 and five of the top 13 teams on the NCAA selection committee’s seed list for the tournament are from the Big Ten. Of the 20 teams that have a top-four seed in the tournament, five are from the Big Ten, the most of any conference.

Its best bet for a champion this year appears to be Michigan, which went 31-3 in the regular season and has one of the country’s best players in All-America forward Yaxel Lendeborg.

Big Ten March Madness championship losses

Here’s a look at Big Ten teams that have lost in the national championship game in the years since Michigan State’s NCAA title in 2000:

• 2002: Maryland 64, Indiana 52
• 2005: North Carolina 75, Illinois 70
• 2007: Florida 84, Ohio State 75
• 2009: North Carolina 89, Michigan State 72
• 2013: Louisville 82, Michigan 76
• 2015: Duke 68, Wisconsin 63
• 2018: Villanova 79, Michigan 62
• 2024: Connecticut 75, Purdue 60

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Big Ten March Madness title drought could end in 2026 NCAA Tournament

Fran Franschilla’s job calling Big 12 games gives him a front-row seat to the best action in college basketball, but that’s where he stops you. Don’t label broadcasting Big 12 hoops work.

“They pay me to travel, not to work,” Fraschilla, ESPN's veteran color commentator and a former coach, says affably. “I’ve been blessed, because I’ve watched the league grow up over 20 years.”

Along the way, Fraschilla became ESPN’s voice of the Big 12 and an unofficial conference advocate. It’s easy to advocate for the Big 12 in a season when the conference supplied peak entertainment and premier performance.

The SEC led all conferences with 10 NCAA Tournament bids, a show of its depth, but ball-knowers recognize the best batch of hoops lived inside the Big 12.

Now, to back that up on the final exam that is the NCAA Tournament.

Bold predictions: Best March Madness upset picks, Final Four sleeper

Toppmeyer: If Jon Scheyer feels any Duke pressure, at least Coach K can relate

The Big 12 earned eight bids. Fraschilla counts three with Final Four potential: No. 1 seed Arizona and No. 2 seeds Houston and Iowa State.

That list would be bigger, he says, if not for injuries to Texas Tech’s JT Toppin and Brigham Young’s Richie Saunders, a pair of big-time ballers who went down in February.

As for national championship potential? Start with Arizona.

“I give Arizona as good of chance as anybody in the field to cut down the nets in Indianapolis,” Fraschilla, who coached Manhattan to a mammoth NCAA Tournament upset of Oklahoma in 1995, told me.

Why Arizona is a top March Madness championship contender

Two of Arizona’s key bench players started on last year’s team that reached the Sweet 16. That speaks to the quality of a starting lineup in which every player averages in double digits scoring.

“They are as complete a team as there is in college basketball," Fraschilla said. "First of all, they are an old-school, bludgeon-you-inside team with three terrific post players. They have as good of a leader at point guard, (Jaden Bradley), as any team in the country.”

Oh, we’ve yet to mention dynamite freshman guard Brayden Burries, the team’s leading scorer.

Try to go devil’s advocate and point out Arizona’s history of March Madness shortcomings the past 25 years, and Fraschilla uncorks the ultimate comeback.

“I can say the same thing about an entire league: the Big Ten,” he says.

Fair point.

Anyway, why should these Wildcats fret about what happened to the 2023 team, which lost to 15th-seeded Princeton in the first round? Or, the 2018 team that got blasted by 13th-seeded Buffalo in the first round? The past three times Arizona earned a No. 1 seed in the past quarter-century, it got bounced before the Final Four. That’s for you to consider as you fill out your bracket, but whispers of the past are not for these Wildcats to fuss over.

“They play like they’re in a cocoon,” Fraschilla said, “so I’m not sure how much of the noise they hear.”

If you need more than one man’s opinion, there’s also Ken Pomeroy's rankings. Basketball nerds cite KenPom as if it’s college basketball’s holy literature. His metrics rank Arizona, Houston and Iowa State among the six best teams, making the Big 12 the only conference with more than one team tucked inside the top six.

The Big 12's “Big Monday” games, with Jon Sciambi and Fraschilla on the call, showcased premier teams in elite environments with future NBA stars.

“Big Monday has become must-watch TV,” Fraschilla said.

Truth.

The Big 12’s TV audience on “Big Monday” doubled this season, according to commissioner Brett Yormark, to average 1.7 million viewers.

Consider it evidence of how the Big 12 survived conference realignment.

Big 12 basketball emerged strong on this side of realignment

Realignment is bloodsport, and the Big 12 hit an inflection point in 2021 after Oklahoma and Texas set out for the SEC’s richer pastures. The impending exodus of the Big 12’s two richest brands cast the future of the conference into peril.

Would it be raided for parts? Merge with the Pac-12?

Neither.

Option 3: Fortify.

The conference steadied by adding BYU, Central Florida, Cincinnati and Houston under outbound commissioner Bob Bowlsby. Then, Bowlsby’s successor Yormark secured a media rights extension with ESPN and Fox before looting the Pac-12 for Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah.

While the Pac-12 collapsed into a shell of its former self, the Big 12 went from endangered species to basketball behemoth.

“The league came out much stronger on the basketball side than anybody would have realized,” Fraschilla said.

Yormark describes his conference as “the second-best basketball league in America behind the NBA,” and he promised to cash in when the conference hits the media rights marketplace again in 2030.

In the meantime, the Big 12 is on national championship watch, with Arizona forming the tip of the spear.

“They have a countenance about them,” Fraschilla said of coach Tommy Lloyd’s Wildcats, “that is built for the tournament.”

Blake Toppmeyer is a columnist for the USA TODAY Network. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: March Madness will test if Arizona, Big 12 are 'built for' NCAA bracket

SAN DIEGO – Two of the greatest men’s basketball coaches of all time had to solve a basic geography test this week.

Where is San Diego, California?

“It’s not Alaska,” quipped St. John’s coach Rick Pitino, who is from New York.

Where is Portland, Oregon?

“Are we in the United States?” Arkansas coach John Calipari asked on ESPN. “I thought they put us in another country.”

March Madness bold predictions: Best upset picks, Final Four sleeper

Pitino’s team from New York plays Northern Iowa in a first-round NCAA Tournament game more than 2,400 miles away in San Diego on Friday, March 20. Calipari’s team plays Hawaii in a first-round game more than 1,600 miles away in Portland on Thursday.

But this is what happens when the NCAA still tries to keep a geographical balance for postseason game sites even though the sport itself has become even more entrenched in the Eastern and Central time zones. Only 10 of the 68 tournament teams (14.7%) come from west of the Kansas border this year, tied for the second-fewest number of western teams in the 21st century, according to data provided to USA TODAY Sports by Stats Perform.

There are several reasons for this, one of which is baked into the cake: Only 63 of 361 teams (17.5%) in Division I are located west of the Central time zone, according to Stats Perform.

At the same time, other money-driven developments raise even bigger questions about the future of the game out west after the implosion of the old Pac-12 Conference in 2024 — a seismic shift that left zero power conferences headquartered west of metro Dallas.

Blame it on realignment, too

Only two teams from the former Pac-12 (UCLA and Arizona) earned NCAA Tournament bids this year, which is tied for the lowest in the modern era for legacy Pac-12 teams, all located in the Pacific and Mountain time zones.

Just 10 years ago, this former “conference of champions” earned seven bids to the tournament. Just two years ago, a record 16 teams west of Kansas earned NCAA bids, including four from the Pac-12.

But then UCLA and USC left the Pac-12 to earn more money in the Big Ten, based in Chicago.

Oregon and Washington followed them there, while Colorado, Utah, Arizona and Arizona State left for the Big 12, based in Texas.

The result is more crowded competition in the Big Ten (now with 18 teams) and Big 12 (now with 16 teams). UCLA earned one of nine NCAA bids for the Big Ten but now plays a first-round game in Philadelphia this week after playing in the Big Ten tournament last weekend in Chicago.

“We’re not concerned with travel,” UCLA coach Mick Cronin said this week. “We’re experienced at it.”

New York and Philadelphia teams to invade San Diego

The NCAA still tries to make this easier. It says so right in its guidelines for geographic placement of teams in the tournament.

“Teams should remain as close to their home region as possible, based on mileage,” the guidelines state.

In theory, this would ease the travel burden on teams and help maximize attendance at games.

But tournament game sites are set years in advance. And there’s only so much the selection committee can do if only four teams earned bids from California. As a result, three of the eight teams playing first-round games in San Diego this week are from New York or Philadelphia but only one is from California (No. 13-seed Cal Baptist from Riverside).

This isn't ideal from a business standpoint if the goal is to sell tickets and cultivate the next generation of fans in California, a state that not only has the most people but also a rich hoops history, at least until recently. In men's and women's basketball, the state has the most combined NCAA Tournament winners, Final Four Most Outstanding Players and NCAA Tournament-winning coaches since 1939 with 37, according to a recent study by BetMGM.

John Calipari says 'We only have to fly six hours'

Of the four regions in the bracket this year, one is still called the “West Region,” whose championship will be decided this month in San Jose, California. The problem is there might not be many local fans to watch it there. Only five of the 16 first-round slots in the West Region are from teams west of Kansas. Only two of those five are among the five highest seeds in the region — No. 1 Arizona and No. 3 Gonzaga.

“We’ll have maybe a few hundred people,” Pitino said of the trip to San Diego. “That’s about it… It’s not ideal traveling to the West Coast, but you deal with it and you just make the best of it.”

Calipari’s team was scheduled to depart for Portland early on Tuesday, March 17.

“We only have to fly six hours to get there,” Calipari said on Sirius XM. “So you know, it’s not all that bad.”

His comments dripped with sarcasm, but if he wins his next two games in Oregon, his team will be rewarded. Arkansas would play the following week in San Jose, which is further south on the West Coast and at least a little bit closer to home.

Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Why NCAA Tournament teams have to travel so far for March Madness